Browse content similar to Learning Zone. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
I'm Professor Robert Bartlett | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
and this is the story of the Plantagenets. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
They were England's longest ruling dynasty, | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
producing 15 of the nation's most famous - and infamous - kings. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:18 | |
Their story is one of intrigue, conflict and brutality. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:23 | |
But also the establishment of England's system of justice. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:28 | |
And the birth of Parliament. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
They conquered Wales and tried to claim Scotland. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
Their great castles hammered home their power. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
The future of the British Isles | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
was shaped by this one extraordinary family. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
The story of England's longest reigning dynasty begins | 0:00:51 | 0:00:55 | |
here in Anjou, Western France. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
In 1128, an enraged princess arrived here. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:04 | |
Her name was Matilda and she was the only surviving legitimate | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
child of King Henry I of England, and his acknowledged heir. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:11 | |
Her father had commanded her to marry a 15-year-old boy, | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
Geoffrey, the eldest son of the Count of Anjou. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
King Henry hoped the arranged marriage at Le Mans Cathedral | 0:01:18 | 0:01:23 | |
would produce a male heir, who would ultimately become | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, and King of England. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:33 | |
Things didn't go according to plan. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
Both Geoffrey and Matilda were proud and quarrelsome people, | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
and after a tumultuous year, they separated. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
But this was, above all, a political union | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
and a reconciliation was soon imposed. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
Matilda rejoined her teenage husband and performed her royal duty - | 0:01:49 | 0:01:54 | |
giving him three sons in three years. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
This ended any doubts about the succession | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
and also laid the foundations of a powerful new dynasty. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
Geoffrey was an energetic, intelligent man | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
with golden-red hair. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:14 | |
He also had a nickname, that comes from the Latin for the broom plant - | 0:02:14 | 0:02:19 | |
planta genista - Plantagenet. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
No-one knows for certain why Geoffrey was called Plantagenet. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
One theory is that it's because he wore | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
a sprig of the plant in his hat. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
But, in any case, for over 300 years | 0:02:32 | 0:02:34 | |
none of his descendants bore the name. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
Kings don't need surnames. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
But it's proved a useful label for historians to describe that | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
long line of monarchs who descended from Matilda | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
and the young Geoffrey of Anjou. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:47 | |
King Henry I had named Matilda his heir. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:53 | |
But when he died in 1135, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
the English throne was seized by Matilda's cousin, Stephen. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
The Plantagenets fought back. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
Geoffrey led a successful invasion of Normandy, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
which had been part of Henry I's dominions, | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
while Matilda crossed the Channel to claim her crown. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
This started almost two decades of civil war. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
Government virtually collapsed and England descended | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
into a period of bloody conflict often called simply The Anarchy. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
Geoffrey and Matilda's eldest son, Henry, inherited his parent's claim | 0:03:27 | 0:03:32 | |
to the English throne and much of Northern France. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
As a young man, he was granted Normandy. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
Later, he inherited Anjou. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
Then by marrying the greatest heiress in Europe, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
Eleanor of Aquitaine, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
he took control of one of the most powerful duchies in France. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:54 | |
Henry now set his sights on winning the greatest prize of all... | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
..the English crown. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
Crossing the Channel with a small army, Henry found England | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
devastated by nearly two decades of civil war between | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
Stephen and Matilda's supporters. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
His arrival persuaded many barons to join the Plantagenet cause. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
Henry's and Stephen's armies confronted one another | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
here at Wallingford Castle. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
A contemporary chronicle, | 0:04:30 | 0:04:31 | |
the Gesta Stephani, describes what happened next. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
"It was a terrible thing to see so many armed men with drawn swords, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:42 | |
"ready to kill their relatives and fellow countrymen. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:46 | |
"And so the chief men on each side shrank in horror from civil war | 0:04:51 | 0:04:58 | |
"and the destruction of their kingdom." | 0:04:58 | 0:05:02 | |
Because the two armies refused to fight, | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
Stephen and Henry were forced to talk. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
According to the chronicles, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
they met outside the castle, one on either side of the stream. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
Eventually they came to an agreement - | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
King Stephen would continue to rule | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
but he recognised Henry as his lawful heir. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
The very next year, Stephen was seized by | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
"a terrible pain in the gut and a flow of blood." | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
The king was dead. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:42 | |
The negotiations that began here would lead to more than | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
three centuries of Plantagenet rule in England. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
On the 19th December 1154, | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
Henry II became the first Plantagenet king of England. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
This French-speaking monarch now ruled a vast empire that | 0:06:01 | 0:06:06 | |
stretched from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
But keeping hold of it would involve intrigue, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
murder and bloody warfare. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
King Richard the Lionheart had survived ten violent years | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
on the throne, but his luck ran out in France in the spring of 1199. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:37 | |
While laying siege to the castle of a rebellious baron in his home | 0:06:37 | 0:06:41 | |
duchy of Aquitaine, Richard was killed by a crossbow bolt. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
His brother John was now the only surviving son | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
of Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor, and quickly secured his coronation. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
But John's teenage nephew, Arthur, also had a claim to the crown, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:06 | |
and was supported by the King of France. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
In 1202, despite his youth, Arthur led an army into Anjou, | 0:07:09 | 0:07:14 | |
hoping to capture Eleanor. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
John rushed there to free her, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
and it was Arthur who was taken prisoner. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
No-one is certain what happened to Arthur after that, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
but a contemporary chronicler claims that Arthur's own jailor | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
told him of the boy's fate. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
According to him, John at first kept his 16-year-old nephew a prisoner. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:38 | |
But then one night, after dinner, when John was drunk and full of | 0:07:38 | 0:07:42 | |
the devil, he went to Arthur's cell and killed him with his own hands, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:47 | |
then tied a huge stone around the corpse | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
and tossed it into the River Seine. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
King Philip of France refused to make peace with John | 0:07:56 | 0:08:00 | |
until Arthur was handed over alive. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
He probably knew this was impossible. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
One by one, Philip conquered John's French domains. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
Soon all that remained of his continental empire was Gascony. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:18 | |
With France lost, | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
John was determined to tighten his grip on England. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
He dispossessed barons who opposed him, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
and exploited his royal powers to accumulate vast personal wealth. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
John also resented Rome's power in his realm, | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
and in 1206 he refused to accept the Pope's latest choice of archbishop. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:47 | |
In retaliation, the Pope deployed his most fearsome weapon - | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
the Kingdom of England was placed under an interdict. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
This meant that all church services in England were suspended. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
The churches and cathedrals stood empty. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
No baptisms or marriages could take place in church. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
The dead could not be buried in churchyards. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
No church bells were heard in England. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
And this lasted six years. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
For believers in a so-called Age of Faith, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
this must have been deeply disturbing. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
But it made John rich. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
Because he hit back by confiscating the clergy's lands and possessions. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
The king and the Pope eventually came to terms. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
John would accept the Pope's nominee as archbishop | 0:09:32 | 0:09:36 | |
but he would keep all the money that he'd squeezed out of the church. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:40 | |
But John wanted even more money, | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
to fund an army to win back the territories he had lost in France. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:51 | |
His barons were not enthusiastic, so John began to bleed them dry, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:57 | |
extracting what he needed through draconian taxes | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
and exploitation of the royal courts. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
He didn't trust his barons, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:06 | |
making them hand over family members as hostages. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
When one of his nobles, William de Braose, prepared to give up | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
his sons, his wife remembered how the king had treated his own nephew. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:19 | |
William de Braose was the baron who had served as Arthur's jailor. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
His wife shouted at him, "I will not hand over my boys to your lord, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:32 | |
"King John, because he foully murdered his nephew Arthur, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
"when he should have kept him in honourable captivity." | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
The king's reaction was savage. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
De Braose managed to escape to France, | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
but John captured his wife and son and imprisoned them. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
He commanded that their food be stopped. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
After 11 days, they were found starved to death. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
The son's cheeks had been eaten away by his ravenous mother. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:59 | |
Plantagenet cruelty had sunk to new depths. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
John's invasion of France failed. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
And in May 1215, many English barons renounced their allegiance to him | 0:11:10 | 0:11:15 | |
and occupied London. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:16 | |
They demanded a settlement | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
liberating the nobility from absolute royal power. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
In desperation, John agreed to accept the demands they made. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:29 | |
The agreement was issued in a charter sealed at Runnymede. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:34 | |
Magna Carta - the Great Charter - is one of the most famous | 0:11:34 | 0:11:39 | |
documents in English history. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
Some of its clauses seem quite mundane, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
like the one fixing the level of death duties, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
but this was a royal power that John had exploited for financial gain. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
Other clauses have a more ringing tone. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned except | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
"by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:06 | |
"To no-one will we sell, | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
"to no-one deny or delay right and justice." | 0:12:08 | 0:12:12 | |
All the clauses are based on the idea that there is a right way | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
of doing things - enshrined in Magna Carta as the law of the land. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
And the most important thing was that it bound both king and subject. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:29 | |
Plantagenet dynastic ambition had provoked a new settlement | 0:12:29 | 0:12:33 | |
between the monarchs and those they ruled. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
Henry III was nine years old | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
when he became the fourth Plantagenet king to rule England. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:55 | |
The French dynasty had dominated England and much of France | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
for 60 years. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
But Henry's father, King John, had lost most of | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
the family's continental lands to the French king. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
Henry grew up to be a pious ruler, devoted to pilgrimage and prayer. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:17 | |
But like his ancestors, Henry was determined to expand his empire. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:23 | |
Henry wasn't a warrior king. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
But he could use the revenues of England to add | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
to the Plantagenet dominions. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
The Pope was inviting Henry | 0:13:30 | 0:13:31 | |
to purchase the rights to the Kingdom of Sicily. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
And he couldn't refuse the chance to add to the family's lands. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
He accepted, on behalf of his younger son, Edmund. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
The only snag was the price tag. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:44 | |
Henry agreed to pay the Pope three times his annual income | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
for the chance to secure Sicily for his son. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
This huge expenditure put his own family's interests | 0:13:56 | 0:14:00 | |
above those of his powerful barons, | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
and a group of them decided the king had to be constrained. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:07 | |
Things came to a head one April morning in 1258. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:16 | |
Seven barons in full armour confronted Henry | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
here in Westminster Hall. The king was startled. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
"What is this, my lords? Am I your captive?" | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
They reassured him that they were not rebels, | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
but friends of the Crown. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:30 | |
Nevertheless, the barons had demands, | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
and the king was forced to submit to them. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
This triggered a chain of reforming legislation that transformed | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
the way England was governed. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
The reforms would be agreed by a committee of 24 - | 0:14:46 | 0:14:51 | |
12 chosen by the king, 12 by the barons. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
For the first time in English history, | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
the king would share his power with a council. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
These historic reforms are known as the Provisions of Oxford. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:08 | |
Medieval kings had always claimed to rule by the grace of God, but | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
Henry now reluctantly swore an oath to share power with the barons in | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
the name of Le Commun de Engleterre - the community of England. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:23 | |
Provoked by Plantagenet extravagance, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
the Provisions of Oxford mark an important moment | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
in the history of England, and of the limitation of royal power. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
For 20 years, the assemblies where the king consulted | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
with his bishops and barons had been known by a term | 0:15:35 | 0:15:39 | |
derived from the French - "parley", to talk. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
This gave us the name of a new institution - Parliament. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
Henry appealed to the Pope to annul the Provisions of Oxford. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
But this provoked his own brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:58 | |
to raise an army from his base here at Kenilworth Castle. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:03 | |
He confronted the king's forces outside Lewes in Sussex. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
De Montfort's men were outnumbered. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
But they inflicted a humiliating defeat on Henry, | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
and took his son and heir, Prince Edward, prisoner. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
Henry remained king in name only. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
For the next 15 months, England was ruled by Simon de Montfort. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:28 | |
And he did so through Parliament. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
De Montfort's Parliament of 1265 is often | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
regarded as the forerunner of the modern Parliament. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
As always, it included barons and bishops - | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
who sit nowadays as the House of Lords. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
But for the first time, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
knights and burgesses were sent from the shires and from the boroughs, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
elected to Parliament by the property owners of England. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
Parliament now had the beginnings of a second house - | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
later to be known as the Commons. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
Henry III seemed to be a spent force. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
But his son Edward escaped captivity. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
He raised an army and confronted de Montfort. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
At the battle of Evesham, | 0:17:20 | 0:17:21 | |
Edward reasserted Plantagenet rule in England. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
De Montfort's supporters were slaughtered, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
and de Montfort himself killed in the battle. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
De Montfort's rule was over. But the English Parliament lived on. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
And future Plantagenet kings would ignore it at their peril. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
Plantagenet kings always looked to expand their territories | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
beyond England. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:53 | |
And Edward I was determined to spread his control | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
across the British Isles. | 0:17:57 | 0:17:58 | |
Wales had troubled the Plantagenet kings for generations. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
Its rugged terrain made it hard to conquer and control. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
And they regarded its inhabitants as little more than barbarians. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
But Edward I was a man who never gave up what he saw as his rights. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:17 | |
And these included, in his eyes, overlordship of Wales. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
But the Princes of Gwynedd, Llewelyn and his younger brother Dafydd, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
stood in his way. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
Their family had ruled here for centuries. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
Edward's father, Henry III, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
had recognised Llewelyn as Prince of Wales, as long as he paid homage. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:41 | |
But when Edward took the throne, Llewelyn refused. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
Edward declared Llewelyn a "rebel and disturber of the peace" | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
and in 1277 set off westwards from Chester | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
at the head of a powerful army of 800 knights, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
crossbowmen from Gascony and 16,000 infantry. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
Edward's army captured Anglesey, the breadbasket of Wales. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
At a stroke, this provided food for his own men | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
and cut off supplies to the Welsh. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
Llewelyn had no choice but to surrender and pay homage after all. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:24 | |
An uneasy truce followed. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
But it was broken when Dafydd ap Gruffydd | 0:19:30 | 0:19:33 | |
led a new rebellion against English rule. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
For over a year, Edward's army clashed with Welsh defenders. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
But in 1282, disaster struck for the Welsh dynasty. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
Llewelyn was killed in battle. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
Dafydd ap Gruffydd held out here at Dolbadarn Castle | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
for a few months more. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
Finally, he was captured and tried by the English. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
Wales was now a Plantagenet dominion. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
Dafydd was executed, and to further stamp his authority, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
Edward built and repaired a chain of castles across Wales. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:20 | |
These fortresses represent the peak of medieval castle-building. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:25 | |
It looked at one point as though Scotland would go | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
the way of Wales, swallowed up by the English kingdom. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
When King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, he left no son. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:44 | |
The dead king's three-year-old granddaughter, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
Margaret of Norway, was next in line to the throne. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
Edward decided that Margaret should marry his own young son. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:57 | |
The situation would be resolved by diplomacy and marriage, not by war. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:04 | |
And Britain would be united under the Plantagenets. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
It remains one of the great "what ifs" of British history. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
No marriage took place. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:14 | |
Little Margaret died in Orkney, on her way to Scotland. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
And with her died Edward's plan | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
for a bloodless Plantagenet take-over of Scotland. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
After the death of Margaret, Edward agreed to tolerate | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
a subordinate king in Scotland - John Balliol. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:34 | |
But as soon as he showed signs of independence... | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
..Edward's troops attacked Berwick and slaughtered its inhabitants. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:43 | |
After defeating a Scottish army at Dunbar, English garrisons | 0:21:44 | 0:21:48 | |
and officials were installed across Scotland. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
But resistance to English rule grew, led by William Wallace. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:58 | |
Wallace was a proud and charismatic figure | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
who refused to pay homage to Edward. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
To crush Wallace, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
the English army had to cross the River Forth at Stirling. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
At this time, the bridge here was just wide enough | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
for the English forces to cross two abreast. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
Once half the army had crossed, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
the Scots swooped down and cut off the bridge. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
SHOUTS, SWORDS CLANK | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
The English stranded on the northern bank were surrounded. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
The result was slaughter. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
Around 5,000 English infantrymen died at Stirling Bridge. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:41 | |
The battle didn't decide the issue, | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
but Wallace's defiance shook Edward I. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
The conquest of Scotland remained his obsession. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
The king was riding to confront another Scottish leader, | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
Robert Bruce, when he died in 1307. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
Plantagenet determination to subdue Scotland was undiminished. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:09 | |
But Edward II's defeat by Robert Bruce at Bannockburn, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
seven years later, set the limits to Plantagenet | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
ambitions in Britain - they would never conquer the Scots. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
And they provoked a deepening of Scottish national pride, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
and a sense of independence that survives to this day. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:27 | |
Henry VI was a simple, pious king, and no warrior. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:39 | |
He lost all the territories in France his father, Henry V, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
had conquered. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
He also suffered from mental illness, which made him vulnerable. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:50 | |
By 1453, he was incapable of ruling. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
Waiting in the wings was a cousin who thought | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
he had a claim to the throne just as good as Henry VI and his young son. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:03 | |
Richard, Duke of York argued he had a greater right to the crown | 0:24:04 | 0:24:09 | |
because Henry VI's grandfather, Henry of Lancaster, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
had seized the throne illegally. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
But Henry's wife, Margaret, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
struggled ferociously to maintain her son's right to succeed. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
The Houses of York and Lancaster were on a collision course. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
The nobility was forced to take sides, | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
many members of the leading families were killed | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
and the power struggle became ever more bitter, bloody and vengeful. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
War raged across England, and after five years | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
the Yorkists were gaining the upper hand. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
But then, disaster. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:53 | |
In 1460, Richard, Duke of York | 0:24:56 | 0:24:58 | |
himself was killed in battle at Wakefield, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
his head cut off and displayed on the walls of York, | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
wearing a paper crown - the only crown he ever wore. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
But the Yorkist torch was taken up by his son, Edward. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
Aged just 18, tall and handsome, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
he would prove to be a formidable warrior. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
After the Battle of Wakefield, he seized control of London, | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
and had himself proclaimed king. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
The battle to determine which Plantagenet was the rightful king | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
took place here at Towton in Yorkshire. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
In heavy snow, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
this would be the bloodiest battle ever on English soil. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
The fighting lasted all day, the turning point coming as dusk fell. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:48 | |
Yorkist reinforcements arrived and attacked the Lancastrian flank. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:55 | |
The Lancastrians were pushed back | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
and began to fall down the hill, panic-stricken. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
As they tumbled down the slope, they found that they had to cross | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
the river that runs at the foot of the hill, through the woods. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
The dead began to pile up in the river. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
The retreating Lancastrians were forced to clamber over what | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
one chronicler called "bridges of bodies". | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
28,000 men were reported dead. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
But Edward had won the crown of England. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
When Edward IV died 22 years later, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:42 | |
his 12-year-old son was proclaimed Edward V. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:46 | |
But he was too young to take power and the new king's uncle, | 0:26:47 | 0:26:52 | |
Richard, saw an opportunity to win the crown for himself. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:58 | |
Richard placed Edward and his younger brother | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
in the Tower of London. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:02 | |
They were never seen again. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
Richard III was crowned king, | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
but his suspected murder of the young princes caused outrage. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:14 | |
Lancastrians and some Yorkists now chose to back Henry Tudor, | 0:27:16 | 0:27:21 | |
a man with a flimsy claim to the English throne. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
Henry had been living in exile | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
and had won the support of the French king. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
He landed in Wales with thousands of French troops | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
and marched east, gathering support along the way. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
Richard and Henry's armies clashed here near Bosworth | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
in Leicestershire. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
Richard's army was far superior in numbers, | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
but the loyalty of his men was in doubt. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
At first, they seemed to be fighting half-heartedly. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
But then Richard saw an opportunity to bring the battle to a swift end. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:08 | |
Richard caught sight of Henry Tudor surrounded by only a small retinue | 0:28:10 | 0:28:15 | |
and he charged directly at him with a few loyal knights. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
One of his most powerful nobles, Lord Stanley, | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
was watching the battle unfold. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
He commanded up to 5,000 men but his allegiance was in doubt. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:33 | |
When he saw Richard isolated and vulnerable, he chose to back | 0:28:34 | 0:28:39 | |
the Tudors and unleashed his troops upon the Plantagenet king. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:45 | |
The king was abandoned but he chose not to flee. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:50 | |
The last Plantagenet monarch was cut down by a lethal blow to the head. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:54 | |
His corpse was stripped naked and paraded along the road to Leicester, | 0:28:56 | 0:29:02 | |
where Richard was buried in a hastily-dug grave. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
The crown he wore into battle was discovered in the carnage | 0:29:06 | 0:29:11 | |
at Bosworth, and placed upon the head of the new king - Henry Tudor. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:15 | |
The Plantagenets, who had dominated England for 331 years, | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
fell into oblivion. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 |